I was ecstatic. I finally found the legendary herb! Its location was absolutely disgusting, though. What kind of herb grows at a frozen wasteland where the only way to get to it is to climb up a vertical cliff? I couldn’t think of anyone who had the skill and tenacity to go this far for a simple herb except the fictional herbalist, Huang Yaoshi!

Clang!

I stabbed the Cyan Netherworld Sword into the rock and held the Blade of the Predator in my mouth. Then, I extended my free arm at the Divine Dayflower and used the Spirit Cooking’s supplementary gathering skill.

Ding~!

System Notice: Congratulations, you have gathered Divine Dayflower x5!

……

Awesome, I got 5 herbs in one go! This should be enough for me to make one Rank 10 Saint Spirit Potion at least. The reason I came this far to gather the Divine Dayflower was because the Rank 10 potion was absolutely amazing. It instantly restored 15k HP and 7.5k MP upon usage, and regenerated 25% of the user’s HP and MP over 60 seconds. Its effect was amazing for someone with over 100k HP, healing for a total of over 40k HP in total. It was a number that could make an enemy player weep and trouble a lot of bosses.

In Heavenblessed, the average potion or consumable had a cooldown of 120 seconds. However, the Saint Spirit Potion was not your average potion. Besides the benefits mentioned above, its cooldown period was half of that of a normal potion, greatly increasing one’s survivability. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call it the best healing item obtainable during the mid-game, be it for PvE or PvP. Therefore, my plan was to make as many Saint Spirit Potions as I could for the girls of Frost Cloud workshop and core players like Li Chengfeng. It was just too good even if you considered the absurd difficulties one had to go through to obtain its core ingredient like long travel time, terrible weather, and deadly terrain.

I started climbing upward again to search for more Divine Dayflowers, and I wasn’t disappointed. Cold ice and stinging winds aside, I spotted a couple of Divine Dayflowers on the frozen walls.

"Hahaha, I’m rich…"

I climbed my way toward the herbs while beaming like the sun. Behind my back, the Soul Suppressing Cloak was flapping loudly against the wind and making me look like a fierce general who was fighting against nature itself. Of course, said general was really sweating like a pig and feeling a little weak in the knees because he was one slip away from a bottomless abyss, not to mention that this type of climbing was extremely exhausting.

The Phantom Wolf King wasn’t nearly as tired as I was, however. Not only did it climb the cliff with far more ease than I did, it almost felt like it was eating popcorn and enjoying a show, namely me. Of course, it immediately stuck out its tongue and wagged its tail dutifully when it caught my gaze.

I was a little dumbfounded, but I shook off the feeling and plunged my sword into the rock above me. Then, I extended my free arm at the second Divine Dayflower and used my gathering skill again. This time I got just 4 Divine Dayflowers, but it was still a pretty good result all things considered.

It took 5 Divine Dayflowers to create just one Rank 10 Saint Spirit Potion. Even an idiot could tell how precious the herb was.

Five gathers later, the environment directly above my head suddenly grew much darker. I had climbed into the clouds before I realized it, and I could even see lightning streaking across the condensed water vapor from time to time. I felt like I was training in hell, and worse, my feet were literally suspended in midair. It was scary to say the least.

It was at this moment that I spotted the sixth Divine Dayflower atop a protrusion of rock. It was covered in ice, and it didn’t look like it would be easy to cut through.

I was just about to extract it when I heard a hiss right next to the Divine Dayflower. Next, the sinister-looking head of a snake appeared and bit my extended arm!

Puchi!

12272!

A wave of dizziness and pain assaulted my senses at once. What the hell is this thing?

I narrowed my eyes and saw a thick-bodied snake that was three meters long and covered in bluish scales. Its head was triangular in shape, and its venomous fangs were gleaming dangerously in the wind. In fact, I was afflicted with the Poisoned status condition. Right now, my HP regeneration was cut in half, and I was losing 400 HP per second. How terrible!

"Roar roar!"

Beside me, the Phantom Wolf King roared as if it couldn’t believe that the bloody snake had the gall to attack its master. It immediately smacked the snake in the head for almost 20k damage before sinking its fangs into its weak spot. Blue blood immediately started pouring out of its wounds.

Frozen Snake was a Level 178 ancient mob with amazing attack power. In Sky City, not even the Fruit Knight Goddess herself could deal this much damage to me with one basic attack, and right now she was probably stronger than even me.

A Level 178 mob was a deadly threat, especially because I wasn’t mounted right now. Thankfully, the Phantom Wolf King was an Immortal Rank boss pet who was as loyal as it was courageous. There was no way it was going to lose to the stupid snake.

However, I was still suspended in midair, and there could be more dangers lurking in the dark. If possible, I wanted to keep my pet as healthy as possible, so I immediately freed the Cyan Netherworld Sword and launched Burning Blade Slash at its weak spot. I was even lucky enough to land two critical hits in a row!

The rest of the fight fell completely in the Phantom Wolf King’s favor. Clinging to the wall with three paws and striking with the fourth, it managed to trigger a Claw of the Storm and left a deep mark on the rock. The mob itself was almost flattened by the blow that killed it!

Pop!

The snake dropped a lot of items in midair, and among them were two humongous magic stones. I grabbed everything instead of leaving behind the magic stones like usual because loot was hard to come by at this place. Magic stones could be sold for money as well, so I wasn’t going to waste them.

The snake also dropped a blue dagger. It turned out to be a high-level dagger, and its blade was clearly covered in poison—

Poison Fang (Spirit-grade, Outstanding★): 870~1100 Attack, +135 Agility, +120 Stamina, Increases user's attack power by 20%. Outstanding Property: Increases user's critical rate by 10%, Level Requirement: 150, Class Requirement: Assassin, Warrior.

……

Holy shit! Who would’ve thought that a mere ancient mob could drop something this amazing? Although it was just a 1-star Outstanding dagger, it increased attack power by 20% and critical rate by 10%. Its base attack power was pretty good too. A lot of players would be hitting Level 150 very soon, and I had a feeling that it would be snapped up immediately if I sold it for 2000 gold. After all, Spirit-grade weapons were still a top-tier weapon that countless people sought after at the current stage of the game. In a world where the majority of players were still using Dark Gold or Purple Gold–grade weapons, a Spirit-grade one was the cream of the crop, Earth-grade was a luxury, and Heaven-grade weapons were like divine armaments, stuff of players’ pipe dreams. As for Immortal-grade, even I had never seen an Immortal-grade weapon yet, much less the others.

I tossed the dagger into my bag so I could sell it after I returned to the city. I wasn’t expecting a normal mob to drop something this amazing. The moment I thought that I could farm Divine Dayflowers for herbs and kill Frozen Snakes for EXP and loot, my journey suddenly felt a lot cheerier than before.

As I continued forward, I soon discovered that the Frozen Snakes were hidden inside the tiny holes along the wall. As long as I put my arm in front of the hole, a Frozen Snake would immediately jump out and bite me in the arm. After that, it was simply a matter of cooperating with the Phantom Wolf King and kicking their asses to kingdom come. If the girls heard about this, they would probably call my fighting style suicidal, and say that I was way too OP again.

Like a happy climber, I climbed up the mountain with two swords and put one bundle of Divine Dayflowers after another into my bag. It was a kind of happiness that only one could get when making bank. Occasionally, I would also take out Level 178 Frozen Snakes that gave an obscene amount of experience and loot drops. Maybe it was because this map was special, but normally the loot drop rate of a normal Level 178 ancient mob was less than 10% of that of the Frozen Snake’s.

In just an hour, I had earned 16% experience, 7 Spirit-grade items, and 21 Purple Gold–grade items. They were all of the Outstanding quality too. There were two reasons why the loot was so amazing. One, the Frozen Snake itself was a special mob with a ridiculously high drop rate. Two, I had a total of 43 Luck after earning 5 Luck from the battle of Immortality City. I’m so happy! I wouldn’t give away my account even for a billion dollars!

……

I decided to skip lunch today, so I sent Beiming Xue a message and told her to pack me some lunch and bring it home. The good stuff obviously, the 18 RMB box from a nearby stall with pork chop, a drumstick, green pepper, shredded potatoes, braised pork, and preserved vegetables. I wasn’t poor anymore, I could afford such extravagant expenditure!

Another half an hour flew by in the blink of an eye. By now, I was so high up that the wind was blowing like a storm, and bolts of lightning were passing behind my head endlessly. One strike would probably be all it needed to kill me where I hung.

Suddenly, I saw a most wonderful sight. It was an entire patch of Divine Dayflowers! There were at least hundreds of them, and they were all swaying in the wind and singing the song of happiness! They looked like leeks waiting to be gathered!

"Here I come…"

I wiped my saliva and started gathering the Divine Dayflowers. It took me five whole minutes before I grabbed everything. Satisfied and happy, I was about to continue forward when I suddenly spotted a shiny orange rock on a dark wall!

"It must be a treasure!" What else could it be considering this place?

I touched the rock, and its info appeared before me—

Qilin Stone: Embed to a mount to increase its stats drastically. Quality: 100, Level Requirement: 150.

……

It was a treasure, one that could improve the stats on a mount! If I put it to my Armored Ice Qilin Horse, it would be like attaching a pair of wings to a tiger!

When I pulled out the Cyan Netherworld Sword and tried to pry out the Qilin Stone, I noticed that it was surrounded by round, hard objects that looked like black pimples. I also caught the stench of something unpleasant when I pried them out of curiosity.

"What the hell is this?"

I have no idea but, oh well, who cares? My goal was the Qilin Stone, not these whatchamacallits!

Suddenly, the entire mountain that made up the Ice Dragon Ridge started shaking violently. Countless rocks fell from the sky, and the ice was breaking everywhere. To my absolute astonishment, the mountain peak above me suddenly bent in an unnatural manner, and a gigantic head pierced through the clouds and glared at me with its deep blue pupils.

I started shaking, and it wasn’t because my environment was shaking. An ice dragon?!

I looked around me and finally realized what was going on. This section of the "mountain" was really the ice dragon’s body, and right now I was hanging at the Ice Dragon’s butt hole. The ice dragon must’ve swallowed the Qilin Stone some time ago, and it somehow survived an entire digestive system and made it to the anus. Now, what would you do if someone poked around inside your anus in search of treasure?

"Gulp…"

I swallowed loudly. I completely understood the ice dragon’s fury.